North Carolina House Bill 2

The North Carolina General Assembly recently held an emergency session which resulted in the passing of House Bill 2, known as the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act. The bill was largely passed as a response to a Charlotte, NC ordinance which would allow transgender people to use the bathroom that matches the gender they identify with instead of the one they were assigned at birth. The bill accomplishes its goal of negating the Charlotte ordinance. However, the bill also eliminated the civil right of action to file an employment discrimination suit in North Carolina state courts.

While we aren’t entirely sure what the motivation behind that move might have been, the likely practical effect is that costs for an employment discrimination suit are going to be higher for both the small employer and employee. Having tried cases in both state and federal courts, we can say (based on client experience) that doing so in federal court tends to be much more expensive in terms of time (fees) and costs (depositions, productions, etc…). And, the state will be losing filing fees that could help fund our courts which have been severely underfunded.